Solaris Installation Tool Support of ZFS File Systems

The following Solaris installation tools have been enhanced in the Solaris 10 10/08 release
to support ZFS file systems:

Solaris interactive text installer to install a UFS or a ZFS
root file system. The default file system is still UFS for the Solaris 10 10/08 release.

Custom JumpStart features to set up a profile to create a
ZFS storage pool and designate a bootable ZFS file system.

Migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system by
using the SolarisTM Live Upgrade feature. The lucreate and luactivate commands have been enhanced to
support ZFS pools and file systems. The lustatus and ludelete commands work as in previous Solaris releases.

Set up a mirrored ZFS root pool by selecting two disks during
the installation. Or, you can attach or add additional disks after the installation
to create a mirrored ZFS root pool.

For previous Solaris 10 releases, see the following limited Solaris
installation tool support for ZFS file systems:

Custom JumpStart – You cannot include ZFS file systems
in a JumpStart profile. However, you can run following scripts from a ZFS
storage pool to set up an install server or install client:

setup_install_server

add_install_server

add_install_client

Live Upgrade – Preserves your original boot environment
and carries over your ZFS storage pools into the new environment. Currently,
ZFS cannot be used as a bootable root file system so your existing ZFS file
systems are not copied into the boot environment.

Solaris Initial Install - ZFS file systems are not recognized
during an initial installation. However, if you do not specify any of the
disk devices that contain ZFS storage pools to be used for the installation,
you should be able to recover your storage pools by using the zpool
import command after the installation. For more information, see
the zpool(1M) man
page.

As with most reinstallation scenarios, you should back up
your ZFS files before proceeding with the initial installation option.